By Vandré Kramer
A study done by the Millenium Institute based on data from the project Freedom to Work of the Liberal Institute of São Paulo (Ilisp) shows an increase of 88.9% in the annual average of companies opened after the approval of decrees or laws of economic freedom in municipalities.
The survey also shows a 65.7% increase in the average annual number of active companies in the analyzed municipalities after the passage of the economic freedom law or decree.
The statistical analysis was conducted using data from 2013 and 2022 for 781 cities with more than 5,000 inhabitants that had some measure to encourage economic freedom.
“The greater freedom to entrepreneurship generated by the waiver of permits led to the creation of more companies and, possibly, the formalization of previously informal businesses,” says Marcelo Faria, president of Ilisp and a specialist at the Millenium Institute.
The impact was also felt in employment.
A study published by the Millenium Institute in October shows a 40.3% increase in the average number of new hirings in the cities analyzed after the measures were approved.
There was also an increase in the average number of dismissals (24.8%), but lower than the increase in admissions, which means that in net terms, the cities created opportunities for work with a signed contract.
FEDERAL LAW WENT INTO EFFECT IN 2019
At the federal level, the Economic Freedom Law (ELL) went into effect on September 20, 2019, under the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), intending to simplify and reduce bureaucracy in the country’s business environment, making it easier to open and operate companies.
According to the federal government’s Enterprise Map, the average time to open a company in the country was 26 hours in March.
Four years ago, this figure was 114 hours.
The main point of the Economic Freedom Law is the end of the requirement for operation, sanitary, and environmental permits for activities considered low risk.
The definition is made by states and municipalities based on a risk matrix, considering the history of the activity.
However, the municipalities’ adhesion to these measures has been small, especially in the North and Northeast.
Except for Rondônia, in all the states of these regions, less than 10% of the municipalities have implemented some type of decree or law stimulating economic freedom.
According to Ilisp, by April 18, 805 cities had established a measure of this kind – the equivalent to 18.6% of all those with at least 5,000 inhabitants.
More than 13.8 million people benefited.
The situation has evolved little in a month. The Ilisp survey presented on March 16 shows that only 799 municipalities and 15 of the 27 states had laws or decrees to facilitate the entrepreneur’s life.
Moreover, at least four cities with more than one million inhabitants have no laws or decrees for economic freedom: Belo Horizonte (MG), Goiânia (GO), Guarulhos (SP), and São Luís (MA).
With information from Gazet do Povo